


Coming in Fast Over Me

by indevan



Series: Rock Band AU [8]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Break Up, Getting Back Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 08:38:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12009072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indevan/pseuds/indevan
Summary: It’s been months since he and Yamcha have broken up but he can’t get his mind off of him.  Tien can’t even remember the reason they broke up but he doesn’t think they’ll get back together.  He was foolish to even attempt a relationship with one of his bandmates even if he is funny and cute





	Coming in Fast Over Me

This tour is going to change everything for them.  Tien can feel it.  Every show, every mile of road that bumps beneath the wheels of his old sedan, he knows it’s going to pay off.  They’re getting their faces known beyond the local scene, getting people talking about them.  Being famous has always been a secondary goal to his own musical aspirations but he can’t help but be appreciative.

The better known they are, the more he can play the music he wants to play.  Reading rock biographies he’s learned: in order to sell an experiment, you have to be established.  If The Beatles had come out of the gates with  _ Sgt. Pepper, _ they’d be laughed out of the room, after all.  Not that Tien thinks very highly of that album but he knows its significance in the historiology of music.

He started his band with an idea in mind.  He didn’t have a wide array of friends to play with.  Chiaotzu, his friend back home, has been by him for years but he’s completely tone deaf.  Can’t carry a tune in a bucket.  He put an ad on Craigslist and hoped for, at the very least, normal people.  He ended up with a dour drummer with a background in jazz, one guitarist with stage fright, and another who hides his clear ability under his own insecurities.

They’re a motley crew but Tien’s proud of them.  He’s proud of how far they’ve come.  When they first started playing together, Yamcha would almost pass out in the middle of shows, his voice petering off and his eyes going wide.  Now he plays fiercely and works the crowd like he’s been doing it since he was knee high to a mic stand.  Krillin, too, has stopped being so self-conscious onstage.  This is their first tour and Tien is determined to play every show to the best of their ability.  He’s determined to get his bandmates the recognition they deserve.

Of course, that would mean that the press would have to stop paying attention to Apetail for two seconds for that to happen.  He feels like he’s in a support slot when all four bands are at an equal billing.  Yet, the music bloggers and other journalists flock to  _ them. _  Their music isn’t bad--it’s a more ragged version of what they themselves play--but he hates them all with a burning passion.

“Goku isn’t bad,” Krillin says. “Believe it or not, I wasn’t popular as a kid.  He was my best friend and his brother was nice to me, too.”

“His brother’s hot!” Yamcha says, and Tien knows it’s solely to get a rise out of him.

Piccolo, at least, is on his side.  He doesn’t mind the other bands.  Sadistic Dance isn’t to his taste but they’re nice.  The kids in U6, too, are fine.  It’s just Apetail.  Every time they argue or fight onstage, everyone salivates.  It’s frustrating.

What’s more frustrating is that he finds himself bogged down by interpersonal issues.  He wants to focus on music, on getting from city to city and playing the best that they can, but he can’t.  It’s been months since he and Yamcha have broken up but he can’t get his mind off of him.  Tien can’t even remember the reason they broke up but he doesn’t think they’ll get back together.  He was foolish to even attempt a relationship with one of his bandmates even if he  _ is _ funny and cute.  Even if he once scraped together spare money he made working in one of those custom t-shirt shops on the boardwalk to buy Tien new bass strings when all of his snapped.

Their relationship is professional onstage but offstage, it’s become little petty jabs.  Petty jabs in the form of Yamcha fucking Apetail’s drummer.  He probably even timed it so Piccolo would open the door in the midst of it, see them, and immediately walk back out.  He probably  _ also _ knew that Piccolo, despite how much he denies it, is a bit of a gossip and would immediately tell Tien what he saw.

He watches the drummer now, reproach (definitely not jealousy) clenching his chest.  He  _ guesses _ that he’s good-looking in an objective way.  His hair is ridiculous, though, and he’s always clearly wearing shirts a size too small to show how beefy he is.  He isn’t even talking to Yamcha!  He’s currently being teased by the boy twin from Sadistic Dance, tossing his head back and shaking his stupid lion’s mane of hair.

“You know he just did it to make you jealous,” Krillin says.

“Well, I’m not!” he growls and turns on his foot to leave.

“You know how I can tell that you’re not?  When you yell it and spit.”

Tien ignores him.  He  _ isn’t _ jealous.  He’s just mad that Yamcha is clearly just transparently trying to get him to  _ be _ jealous.  They have a few hours before they have to go on so  _ he _ has time to go brood--not that he’s brooding, he definitely is  _ not. _

Of course, he has to see Yamcha.  He’s talking to the drummer from U6.

“Oh, yeah, nah, the monroe didn’t hurt,” he says, “but it’s really hard not to mess with it.”

She nods and Tien wonders if he should intervene before Yamcha pierces something on her.  She already let the bassist from Apetail give her a septum ring so he doesn’t have a good opinion on her judgment.

“Hey, Tien,” he says without missing a beat. “I see you’ve raided Roger McGuinn’s closet again.”

Back when they first performed, Tien would only wear a pair of jeans during their shows.  He liked the feeling of his strap against his bare skin, the way he could almost feel sweat settling on the hollows of his collarbone.  After their breakup, he started dressing like this.  He knows he looks like a sixties folk singer but he thinks on some level, he knows Yamcha thinks he looks dorky and it makes him happy to bug him.  He doesn’t think it’s on purpose.  He isn’t that petty.  These clothes are  _ comfortable. _

“We have sound check,” he says even if that isn’t true.

He doesn’t know why he says it.  He doesn’t know why he says most anything he says to Yamcha these days.  He gives him a laconic salute and walks by him.  As he does, he tugs on Tien’s knit cap and he smacks his hand away.  He feels a little tingle from where Yamcha’s fingers brushed his forehead but he ignores it.

\--

“We have to update the sign.”

Tien almost doesn’t know what Yamcha’s saying at first.  He  _ should know _ that after a show, Tien goes and sits by himself to meditate on it and think about how they did and how they could do better.  He sits in his car and turns on an REM CD very low while he sits with his eyes closed.  He was interrupted by Yamcha tapping on the window and telling him--this?

“What sign?” he asks once he rolls the window down.

Yamcha sighs and leans both of his arms on the door.  He leans in and the streetlights are highlighting the naturally upturned tilt of his lips and shadows sink into the scars on his face (scars he will never say how he got).  Tien wills away the thought of how cute he is.  It doesn’t matter.  They’re broken up and he...it isn’t his  _ business _ that he fucked that guy but it still bugs him.  He’s  _ not _ jealous, though.  He refuses to let that creep into his mind.

“The sign we made for Apetail.”

As a joke, Yamcha and a few others had made a sign that says “[blank] Days Since Last Apetail-related Nonsense” and would update it accordingly.  Tien never participated because he didn’t want to spend more time than he had to thinking about those assholes.

“What did they do?” he asks because he knows Yamcha will tell him anyway, despite how little he cares.

“You know their, uh, I guess he’s the lead singer?  I dunno, they have  _ two _ so it’s hard but the short one.”

“The one who looks like he’s competing with their bassist for who’s going to make it into the 27 Club first?  Yeah.  What’d he do?”

“He punched their other singer through the guitar.  He’s on the way to Urgent Care now.”

That...isn’t what Tien would have thought.

“He what?”

Yamcha makes a fist and mimes punching. “Through the guitar.”

He shakes his head.  Every day, those damn bastards test his patience.  It’s bad for his blood pressure to think about them any more but then here’s Yamcha, recounting another story.  And why did he come all the way out here to tell him?  He knows Tien doesn’t care.

“You know, he dated one of my exes?”

“Yamcha, I don’t care.”

“He took off that jacket he always wears once and he had her name tattooed on him.  I mean, Bulma and me dated in high school so it’s, like, whatever, but weird coincidence huh?”

“Yamcha!”

On his stereo, Michael Stipe is still singing about how this one goes out to the one he loves and Tien puts his hand on the handle to roll the window back up.

“Tien!” he mocks his voice but he’s grinning in that way that makes it impossible to stay mad at him.

Sure enough, he grins at him and Tien feels himself give a slight one in return.  They’re broken up but no one can get him to smile like Yamcha can.  Why did they break up?  He can’t remember, but he supposes that it doesn’t matter.

“Hey, sorry.  I just wanted to talk to you.” His grin turns into a soft smile and Tien is compelled both to kiss him and to furiously roll his window back up. “We sounded great out there.”

“The transitions can be smoother.  It feels too much like an album, not a show.”

It’s the third Yamcha Smile (™) he’s gotten in the last couple minutes and this one is lopsided and endearing and...Tien clenches his jaw.

“You’re too hard on us.  Too hard on yourself, too.”

“Are you done?” he asks because he can’t bear to let this conversation go on.  He doesn’t trust himself to stick to his convictions.

Something passes over Yamcha’s face--it’s too dark to see it in the darkness behind the venue--and he shakes his head.

“Okay.  Let us know when you’re ready to go.  There’s a Days Inn not far from here.”

He nods and he isn’t sure what changed in the atmosphere but it feels full all of a sudden.  Yamcha leaves and Tien rolls his window back up.  He puts his head on the seat rest and closes his eyes but he can’t get back to his post-show visualization.  He curses Yamcha but he knows it’s not just his fault--it’s his own.

\--

He doesn’t have anything better to do so he sits in on the drumming lessons that Piccolo has started giving Kakarrot’s son.

“He’s four,” he says. “He can’t even reach the kick pedal.”

Gohan glares at him.

“Mr. Piccolo hits it for me.”

He wonders if the kid’s parents have anything on him but Piccolo seems weirdly proud of the kid as he plays.  He remembers him telling him that when he was little, he begged his uncle--a famous jazz drummer who Tien is only passingly familiar with as his knowledge of jazz can fit in a thimble--to teach him.  Maybe he sees a bit of himself.  Tien has to admit that he finds the kid a lot more palatable than his father.

“What are we going to do when this is over?” Piccolo asks.

Tien stills his hands on the body of his guitar.

“I was thinking we consolidate some tracks from our mixtapes into a full album with some new material.”

Piccolo nods.

“I’ll buy it,” Gohan says. “My birthday’s soon and my grandpa on my mom’s side always gives me twenty whole dollars.”

Tien looks at him and can’t help but be endeared.

“Well, that’s one sale.”

Gohan beams.  He is a cute kid, he has to admit.

“There you are.”

Yamcha comes in, guitar case in hand.

“Me and Krillin were looking for you.” He stretches his mouth to the side and adds, “Or we were until Lazuli came and Krillin forgot who either of you two are.”

He laughs and comes to join them onstage.

“Hey, little dude.” He holds his hand out and Gohan high fives him. “Gonna be the next Keith Moon?”

“I don’t know who that is,” Gohan replies.

Yamcha laughs again.

“I’ll let you borrow one of their albums, okay?”

Tien watches him and feels something tug on his chest.  He’s been trying to ignore it these past few weeks but he can’t deny that he still has feelings for Yamcha.  It’s unprofessional and a bad idea but there’s a disconnect from his head to his heart.  He walks over to Tien and plops down next to him.

“Boop.”

He taps his nose with the tip of his finger and grins.  Tien stares back at him, unsure if he should glare at him or not.

“Let’s have a good show tonight,” Yamcha says and grins. “Let’s show them how hard we work, right?”

Tien nods.  That night, when he goes on, he does so without a shirt.

\--

“We have to reset the sign again.”

Yamcha sits with him in his car after the show.  He’s allowed him in on his personal time.  They’re listening to “Orange Crush” but really, he’s listening to Yamcha.  He’s forgotten how much he likes the sound of his voice.  It’s hoarse from singing all night but it makes him like it more.  How much he puts into every song.  How much confidence he’s gained since he first joined the band.

“Why are you talking about them?”

“I’m just saying, he walked off in the middle of a set.”

“Not like he’ll get in trouble.  King Kai knows who’s going to be paying his bills.” Tien fiddles with the A/C knob even though he knows it doesn’t work.  Restlessness settles over his bones.  Usually he feels a calm after a show as he reflects on it but being so close to Yamcha makes him feel nervous.

“I guess.  He sounded okay acoustic, though.  Talented assholes.” He shakes his head and laughs.

He hums along with the song and then lets his head fall on the head rest.

“Hey, Tien?”

“What?”

He turns and Yamcha kisses him.  His hands are on Tien’s bare shoulders and his mouth is on his and they’re kissing.  Making out in the front of his car like a couple of teenagers on a date.

“What was that about?”

Yamcha doesn’t answer him at first.  Instead he takes the knit cap from Tien’s head and tugs it onto his own.

“You can’t just kiss me and then do something stupidly cute.”

“I wanted to.  For a while I wanted to stick it to you ‘cause you were like ‘let’s end this’ for no reason.  But I’m over it and just want to be together again.”

“It wasn’t ‘for no reason.’”

He rolls his eyes. “You said ‘we can’t do this.  Let’s end this’ because, I dunno, you were worried we were getting too serious--”

“I was worried about the band.”

In his returned feelings, Tien forgot how Yamcha can get under his skin.  He doesn’t mind it, though, which is surprising.

“Wah-wah, inter-band blah-blah.  Let’s face facts: we’re good together.  We like each other.  So let’s cut the crap and go back to kissing.”

He puts it forth so simply that Tien nearly laughs.  The song switches to the next track and Yamcha puts his lips on his once more.

**Author's Note:**

> http://vertigoats.tumblr.com


End file.
